This Iconic Car Held The No. 1 Sales Spot The Longest In The 1990s

Back in the 1990s, there was a car that held the top U.S. sales spot longer than any of its competitors. That car was the Ford Taurus, which held the title for five of the 10 years from 1990 through 1999. The Taurus claimed the Number One best-selling car status for five straight years, beginning in 1992 and ending in 1996. In case you were wondering about the other cars that took the title before and after, the Honda Accord reigned supreme in 1990 and 1991, while the Toyota Camry wore the sales crown for 1997, 1998, and 1999.

All told, during the five years that the Ford Taurus was top dog, Ford dealers sold a total of 1,934,551 of these vehicles. This breaks down as 409,751 in 1992, 360,448 in 1993, 397,037 in 1994, 366,266 in 1995, and 401,049 in 1996. That's a lot of Tauruses, and it doesn't count the ones sold during the other five years of the 1990s.

For model year 1992, the Taurus's first year at the top of the heap, the second-generation Taurus was put on sale. It featured some changes from the original 1986-91 model, which was far more important than you realize. These changes included smaller headlights and a much smoother body design, intended to lessen the "jellybean" look of the original Taurus, as some of its critics called it. It would continue to top the charts for the next four years.

The Ford Taurus was Ford's well-researched attempt to completely reconceptualize what an American car should be, developed against the rising tide of Japanese brands being increasingly assembled by U.S. workers in factories located on American soil. The Ford Taurus team was led by Lewis Veraldi, who quickly established the idea that the Taurus had to be not only front-wheel drive, but it also had to be the best car in its class. This led to the benchmarking of its handling, ride, and general driving feel against upscale European luxury cars like the Audi 5000S, while still keeping the qualities that U.S. buyers valued.

This was a formula for success, and the top-ranking sales figures of the Ford Taurus proved it for all those years from 1992 through 1996. When model year 1996 rolled around, which turned out to be the final year of the Taurus' sales dominance, it was time for Ford to roll out a new generation. It looked totally different from the best-selling car of 1995. The third-generation Taurus was very oval in its design themes, both inside and out, said to be inspired by luxury sedans from Infiniti and Jaguar.

The strange styling approach did not result in a positive reception by retail customers, putting many of them off the new Taurus. This could also have something to do with why 51% of 1996 Tauruses ended up in fleets. Model year 1996 would be the last in which a Taurus topped the charts.

The Ford Taurus achieved a level of success for Ford in the '90s that it hadn't seen since the Japanese got serious about U.S. sales. For one bright, shining five-year period, an American-designed passenger car outsold the competition from Japan, including the popular Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. It forced all automakers in the U.S. market to up their game, with the Japanese upsizing their vehicles to match the Taurus' interior space, while the Americans scrambled to improve their interiors to compete with the Taurus' intelligent, easy-to-reach control layout and dashboard design, including integrated door panels that provided an upscale look in a mass-market sedan. 

The Taurus' five-year run as top-selling U.S. sedan started with the introduction of the wildly popular second-generation Taurus and concluded just as the fish-faced, bug-eyed, unloved third-generation was introduced. Most of the team that had been responsible for the original 1986 Taurus had retired from Ford or had passed away by this point in time. The Taurus' crown was taken by the Toyota Camry for nearly every year afterwards, but rising SUV sales would put a permanent crimp in U.S. sedan sales going forward. Ford eventually discontinued the Taurus. 

The 1992-96 Ford Taurus combined great marketing that promoted its safety features, solid engineering throughout, appeal to consumers with families, and additional sales to fleets that kept its sales numbers high enough to maintain supremacy for five years in a row. It raised the standards by which mass-market vehicles are judged, and that's a good thing.